OKXICE Tokenized Stock Plan Draws 22 Objections as Cisco, Wells Fargo Opt Out
Cisco, Wells Fargo, Marvell, Arm, Intuit and Moderna have opted out of OKXICE's tokenized trading plan, lifting the number of objecting companies to 22.
Six more companies have objected to having tokenized versions of their shares traded on OKXICE, the joint venture of crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange. The total number of objections now stands at 22.
An updated public notice filed Friday names Cisco, Wells Fargo, Marvell Technology, Arm Holdings, Intuit and Moderna. They join a list that already included Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's, which declined in recent weeks.
How the framework works
The objections stem from the SEC's five-year "Innovation Exemption." It lets qualifying tokenized securities venues test trading through automated market makers, which are software systems that execute trades using pools of assets. Issuers get a say in whether their shares take part: venues must notify them and allow 30 days to object before listing tokenized versions.
OKXICE issued its first public notice on Oct. 4. It outlined plans to use Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain, with transactions settled in stablecoins. The aim is to let U.S. investors trade stocks around the clock on blockchains.
Not all objections are departures
The venture's original roster covered 62 companies. Cisco, Moderna, Intuit and Marvell were on it, but Wells Fargo and Arm were not. Cerebras Systems, whose objection was disclosed earlier, was also outside the roster. So the 22 objections cannot all be counted as companies pulling out of the original selection. An objection also blocks trading only on the notifying venue. It does not show opposition to every form of stock tokenization.
OKXICE co-chairman Andrew Cuomo, a former New York governor, said such responses were expected. "We always anticipated that, because this is such a dramatic and revolutionary change, many companies would want to wait and see how it goes rather than be the first to participate," he said on a Monday press call. He described the framework, with its limits on participating companies and trading volumes, as "a sandbox — a model demonstration."
For now, the growing list shows how much depends on issuer buy-in. Even a limited test needs enough large, recognizable names to attract liquidity, and many of the biggest companies are choosing to watch from the sidelines.
